And just like that the 2026 World Cup is over. Yes there’s the third place play off ‘final’ but I made the mistake of doing that in 1990 and I said never again. So we will fly to New York City today, Friday and head back to the UK on Monday, just in time for my speed awareness course on Tuesday. We will watch England on the telly for the first time, which will be weird, and watch the final at a bar too. May the best team win that, and may that team be Spain.
Yesterday was another day when those very special memories you make take root and spread their own wings in our minds taking on a life of their own. Let’s face it, we only have one life as far as I know, so you may as well give it your very best shot. No matter the result of the game, what happens around it is what really makes life that little bit more special.
Kirsty was coming down with a flu like situation so we decided to avoid the early morning meet up in the Hudson Grille near the stadium and duck the Atlanta heat as best we could. We had a wonderful Turkish meze breakfast at Agora Midtown, and as with everything Atlanta, the staff were just lovely. We were greeted at the door by a little porcelain version of Bob Ross, the presenter of the 80’s and 90’s TV show ‘The Joy of Painting’ which made a comeback during Covid because it was such slow and relaxed TV. Our Joyce used to love watching it and Kirsty felt that it may be a sign that Joyce was watching over us.
Our favourite stadium in the US is the Mercedes Benz in Atlanta. It’s an amazing design, has a roof and has full air conditioning of course, but it’s also smack in the middle of the city and really easy to get to via the MARTA rail system. It is surrounded by bars and places to eat. Given Kirsty was suffering we decided to get to the stadium early, enjoy the AC and get a beer at very affordable prices $8-9 per pint.
I did warn anyone who asked that England fans would be outnumbered at least 10-1 by Argentinian fans. This fact still surprises some England fans, but in the three previous World Cup games I have been to, when we played that lot, they always had huge numbers. I also told everyone that they are the most graceless bunch and tend to treat opposition fans with total disrespect and contempt. That’s probably why they appear to be the most disliked fans in world football. As the whole of South America sings ‘Latinos Americanos menos Argentina’ which translates to ‘Latin America minus Argentina’.
Anyway we were in the stadium three hours before kick off, but already the place was full with Argentinians. We saw some familiar faces and had some great chats, Mark and Sam were in early too as was Thomas from the FSA and Free Lions.
The BBC team had set up their broadcast podium at the entrance to the main England supporters block and we could see Messrs Chapman, Rooney, Richards and Hart were preparing for the day of punditry.
I was determined to feel relaxed throughout today, no matter what so the run up to kick off really felt good for a change. England had made some changes with Rogers coming in for Saka or Madueke, and Reece James and Djed Spence returning at full backs.
We had seats that were one row back from the front directly behind the goal. For some reason we were not allowed to drape our England flags in the way that the Argentinians had been allowed to do the same at their end, directly opposite us.
We enjoyed watching our players doing their drills.
The National Anthems were interesting. Ours was first and the Argentinians just sang their own songs doing their best to drown us out. As I said, they are a classy bunch.
We topped up sitting next to our mate Darren, the Leicester City fan who had funded his trip out here by giving up alcohol completely for the past three years.
The game kicked off and the atmosphere was electric. So much noise. So much passion. So much expectation. So much pressure. As predicted the Argentinian players laid into ours physically and used every trick in the book to wind our lads up. It was always going to happen and it was always important not to rise to their bait. The ref clearly decided to keep his cards in his pocket though.
I thought we had an excellent first half without creating too many chances, but Argentina really didn’t create much either. I felt positive at half time that if we kept this up, with a bit of luck, we could win this and I was convinced it could be a one goal game.
It felt like the second half got underway quickly and before we knew it we had scored what I thought would be the all important goal. It was a great move right in front of us, Rice, Rogers and then Gordon to completely undo their defence.
But when I figured out that there was still at least half an hour to go, I felt we needed the second goal, get that and we would win.
The remaining time seemed to elongate and expand so it felt it went on forever. My phone was blowing up with messages about why we had gone defensive and were letting them come at us. I decided to ignore my phone. But we really were sitting back and defending. It felt ominous and I think there was about six of seven minutes of normal time left and still 1-0 up, but we were blowing all over the pitch. Substitutions had been made by both sides and everything was becoming one big blur.
And then Fernandes scored their equaliser. It couldn’t happen to a nicer bloke. If they got one, they were going to get two. And they did. The ground erupted and we were out of the World Cup at the semi final stage again.
The England players came over to salute us and us them. Not one boo or anything negative from us fans, yes we’re all gutted but we had not turned on the players, and nor should we. They, like us were shell shocked.
We took our time in the ground, even though we lost, days like these don’t come along often, so it’s worth just soaking it all up. Mark and Sam came to join us and we headed to a bar where some of Mark’s friends were. It was about a 25 minute walk in the Atlanta heat, but we when we got there we were greeted by Sammy, Mark and Sam’s friend by a red London telephone box. We went into the phone box and exited out of the back of it into a great bar come Speak Easy. This was The Red Phone Booth and it was a private, invitation only bar. It felt like something out of Kingsman.
The Evas were in town doing their now legendary ‘flying visit to the game where England get knocked out of the World Cup’ again. Steve, Alan, Jack and Jed joined us and caused their usual level of chaos. But it’s always great to see them and it wouldn’t be a World Cup without them making an appearance.
Billy, Spanish Dave, Bella and Obi also joined us and the evening did go a little off the cuff. Billy and I had a very poignant discussion as to whether either of us would ever get this close to a World Cup final in our lifetime again. That was deep, and that was real. We shall see.
Kirsty and I had to do a piece for BBC5Live Breakfast. We were both lagging but managed to put some words together inside the phone box which was like an oven.
Eventually everyone said their farewells and drifted off, a bit like the game did earlier. I needed to get Kirsty back to our hotel as she was feeling awful with this virus, not helped by the beer and gin of course. And we had agreed to do a BBC Breakfast TV interview to do at 1.30am local time. That was always going to be a challenge, but needed to be done. And so it was. And that was that.
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